Bhubaneswar, July 29: Hockey lovers in the state can hope to find themselves cheering for the home team in international-level league matches early next year.

The Hockey India League (HIL), an international-level professional league for field hockey in India, has displayed interest in having an Odisha-based franchise for their second edition to be held in January next year.

The chances of Odisha filling the slot of the sixth HIL franchise is in the offing with the inauguration of a state-of-the-art hockey stadium with a pink-and-blue synthetic surface today at Kalinga Stadium Sports Complex.

Sports and youth services department officials said officials of Hockey India, the governing body of field hockey in the country, visited the stadium last week and have expressed their satisfaction with the facilities.

“Today, we received a proposal from Hockey India for the Odisha team for the annual HIL. We will examine the proposal and are in touch with the officials of Hockey India,” said Hrushikesh Tripathy, state sports secretary. “The proposed name of the team is Kalinga Warriors. We will facilitate the entry of bidders from the state for auctioning the team in the competition,” said another senior official of the department.

The first edition of HIL last year had five franchises from Ranchi, Delhi, Punjab, Lucknow and Mumbai. The tournament was originally planned with six contesting teams but only five franchises were sold. A team from Odisha is likely to fill that slot. The officials of the state sports department said Hockey India was also looking at other possible venues such as Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. Each team in HIL consists of 24 players, including 10 foreigners.

So far, the state has produced three captains for the national men’s hockey team along with two captains for the Indian women’s hockey team. “Our state team has won three successive titles at the national sub-junior level. If the state is represented in HIL, players from the state will have good exposure as they will be able to practise with foreign players,” said former national team captain Dilip Tirkey. He also captained Hyderabad Sultans in the inaugural edition of Premier Hockey League in 2005 and Orissa Steelers in 2007 winning the championship for both teams.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the synthetic turf stadium built at an estimated cost of Rs 19.94 crore with a seating capacity of 6,000. A Germany-based company has laid the new turf. The facilities of the stadium include an automatic sprinkler system for watering the ground, a player’s lounge, medical and dope control rooms. This is the fifth synthetic turf for hockey in the state. The other four are in Sundergarh district.

“It is encouraging that the state capital now has a world-class hockey turf exactly similar to the one used during the last hockey World Cup. This will definitely bolster the hockey infrastructure in the state,” said Tirkey.

The turf is coloured blue and pink to be visually attractive during telecast of matches. This is the first synthetic hockey turf in the country to have this colour scheme. A hockey academy will also run within the stadium and officials said work on floodlights for the stadium would start shortly.

Naveen today also laid the foundation stones for the synthetic surface of a football ground, a multi-purpose indoor hall and horticulture project for landscaping at the Kalinga Stadium Sports Complex.

The synthetic football surface to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 5.74 crore will be executed by the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco). The proposed facility will have watering facilities along with a small spectators’ gallery.

The indoor hall, to be built on an area of 10,800sqm, will have a playing area of 2,400sqm and come up at an estimated cost of Rs 17.36 crore. The indoor stadium will enable the state to host various indoor competitions such as basketball, volleyball, handball, badminton, table tennis, gymnastics and weightlifting. The work has been awarded to the public works department.

The landscaping of the Kalinga Stadium Sports Complex at an estimated cost of Rs 4.41 crore includes tree plantation, installation of waterfalls, fountains, sculptures, lighting and entrance gate. The Odisha Horticulture Development Society will execute the work.